Central Catholic 3-point barrage burns Pontiac

Saturday

Feb 16, 2013 at 1:05 AMFeb 16, 2013 at 1:10 AM

Indians fall to Saints

Erich Murphy

Central Catholic was hot from the outside and that was not good for Pontiac as the Saints used a perimeter attack to shoot past the Indians 62-37 in a Corn Belt Conference boys’ basketball game Friday night at PTHS. The Saints made 9 of 16 shots from beyond the 3-point line. Two of those misses came by the reserves late in the game. “When they’re hitting 3s they are a very tough team to beat, and they hit a lot of 3s,” PTHS head coach Brandon Martin said. “They get an open look, they’re going to knock it down.” It was the long ball that gave the Saints the edge early, and then allowed the visitors to pull away in the second half. BCC made a trio of triples — switching from one side to the other — in a two-minute span in the first period to take a 13-8 lead. It was 15-8 when the quarter ended. Pontiac was able to make a run at Central Catholic at the start of the second period. Included in a 7-0 run to start the frame was a 3-pointer from William Meiner that tied it at 15-15 with 5:36 left in the half. But the Saints responded with their only trey of the quarter — from Elliott Hoerdemann on the left side — to take the lead for good. Austin Holman converted a steal and the BCC lead was 20-15. Mistakes were a key part to Pontiac’s demise. One such error took place at the end of the first half when the Tribe turned the ball over and then fouled Hoerdemann, who made a pair of free throws with 1.4 seconds on the clock to give the Saints a 25-20 halftime lad. “As many shots as they made in the first half, I thought we were lucky enough to get in the locker room only down five,” Martin said. BCC was back at it, hitting four 3-pointers in the third period to pull away. “Tonight we made some shots,” BCC head coach Jason Welch said. Jake Reinhart hit two of the triples while Mitch Haynes and Hoerdemann added one trey apiece. A three-point play from Hoerdemann followed his 3-pointer and gave Central Catholic a 42-24 lead. “When it comes down to it, our defense was pretty poor,” Martin said. “We knew they were going to step four shooters on the floor at one time and we didn’t close out. “We have two weeks before regional. We have to learn to close out on shooters and contain guys off the dribble and tonight we did a pretty poor job.” Trent Smith led Pontiac with 13 points while Zac Justus had 8 and Shawn Milhauser threw in 7 points. Meiner scored 5 and Carter Jacobs and Logan Gschwendtner threw in 2 points apiece. Hoerdemann led BCC with 17 points and Jack Hester scored 10. SOPHOMORES: Pontiac let one slip away in the preliminary game, losing 53-50 in overtime. The Indians led by three and had the ball with 6.9 seconds remaining in regulation. The ball was inbounded to a corner and Drew Mills stepped out of bounds with 3.7 seconds left. BCC got a 3-pointer from Clay McKinney to send the game into overtime. McKinney then hit a 3 to tie the game at 50-50 in OT. Pontiac turned the ball over with 14 seconds left and the Saints won it with a 3-pointer out of the left corner as time ran out for the win. Kye Comincioli had 17 points, 15 in the second half, for Pontiac. Mills added 12 and Kevin Lewis scored 9 points.